DR Congo National Football Team

DR Congo's 2026 World Cup qualification, their second ever and first in 52 years, ends one of the longest tournament droughts of any nation in CAF. The Fédération Congolaise de Football was founded in 1919, and the team — competing under the names Belgian Congo (pre-1960), Congo-Léopoldville (1960-1971), Zaire (1971-1997) and Democratic Republic of the Congo (1997 onwards) — has been the largest population (over 110 million) and the largest by land area African nation never to consistently appear at World Cups. The 1974 Zaire team that debuted in West Germany remains one of African football's most iconic — and most mocked — tournament squads. Zaire became the first sub-Saharan African nation to qualify for a World Cup, but the campaign produced the heaviest African tournament defeat in history at the time (a 9-0 loss to Yugoslavia in Gelsenkirchen, after which goalkeeper Mwamba Kazadi was substituted at half-time) and the famously eccentric Mwepu Ilunga free-kick clearance against Brazil that has become the canonical 'African football was not yet ready' anecdote. The squad's struggles obscured genuine talent — captain Mwepu Ilunga, defender Mukombo Mwepu and forward Pierre Ndaye Mulamba (the 1974 AFCON's top scorer) all had top-tier careers. Sébastien Desabre, the French coach who took over in 2022, has rebuilt the senior team around a high-press defensive structure and a quietly emerging European-based squad. Chancel Mbemba of Olympique de Marseille is captain. The squad combines Mbemba with Yoane Wissa (Brentford), Cédric Bakambu (Real Betis), Théo Bongonda (Beşiktaş), Arthur Masuaku (Sunderland) and goalkeeper Lionel Mpasi. DR Congo reached the AFCON 2025 quarter-finals, losing 1-0 to Ivory Coast in extra time, and the form-line carried directly into the World Cup cycle.

Mwepu Ilunga's free-kick clearance against Brazil at the Parkstadion in Gelsenkirchen on 22 June 1974 — running out of the wall and clearing the ball downfield before referee Nicolae Rainea had even blown the whistle for the free-kick — remains the most-replayed African footballing moment of all time. The image has been used in countless retrospective coverage as the canonical 'African football was not yet ready' anecdote; what is less often noted is that Ilunga's clearance was an attempt to waste time and reduce Brazilian shooting opportunities, given Zaire were already 3-0 down and exhausted by altitude. Zaire ultimately lost 3-0 to Brazil and exited the tournament. Pierre Ndaye Mulamba's nine-goal tournament at the 1974 Africa Cup of Nations — including all four goals in the final against Zambia at the Stade du 28 Septembre in Conakry — remains the record for any AFCON tournament. Ndaye Mulamba's career was subsequently cut short by injury, but the 1974 cycle established him as the most prolific African forward of the immediate post-independence era. His record stood for 32 years until Cameroonian striker Samuel Eto'o broke it in 2008. Yoane Wissa's 67th-minute goal against Cameroon at the Stade Larbi Zaouli in Casablanca on 21 March 2026 — heading in a Théo Bongonda cross from the left — was the moment DR Congo's modern footballing identity finally produced a tournament-defining result. The 1-0 CAF playoff semi-final win opened the door to the final-round playoff against Nigeria three days later, which DR Congo also won, sealing one of the two African slots in the inter-confederation playoff bracket.